What are some of the most common red flags you've come across either on a candidate's resume or initial interview that you'd advise future product managers to avoid?

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4 Answers

Product Management Interviews

Farheen Noorie

Superhuman Head of Product, Enterprise • 1y

Resume: Usually, the biggest red flag for me in a resume is when either the candidate doesn't describe any impact metrics or focuses on a vanity metric, eg, if a checkout PM describes an increase in the number of payment page views instead of an increase in checkout conversions Initial Interview: PMs are often advised to use a variety of frameworks for their interviews primarily to showcase a PM's structured thinking to a problem. This is good advice as long as the PM uses a framework for refere ...Read More

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Lizzy Masotta

Shopify Senior Product Lead | Formerly Salesforce, Google, Nest, Cisco Systems • 3y

Interview Red Flags During a Product Case Interview – If your interviewer is having to guide you through each section or prompt you with several follow up questions, that’s not a good thing. If a candidate clearly has never used the product (hint: always sign up for the product, do the free trial, or watch YouTube videos / demos). If one of the candidates questions at the end is something along the lines of “how do promotions work here?” If a candidate is unable to draw connections between their ...Read More

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Brandon Green

Buffer Staff Product Manager | Formerly Wayfair, Abstract, CustomMade, Sonicbids • 3y

I've sort of answered this in other questions asked, but to restate: Red Flags usually manifest in candidates who are Unable to speak to specific impact they (as opposed to their team/org) have had on the business, or point to any specific metric they impacted, and why that metric was important Unable to speak to experiences of learning/growth in the face of failure, or blaming others on said failures Unable to speak to a basic understanding of how the business they're interviewing for works, ho ...Read More

617 Views
Sailaja Kalle

Gainsight Director, Product Management • 2y

Non willing ness to work in team, Not able to take feedback, constant change of jobs are some red flags that one needs to avoid in potential candidates.

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